Blog for Christians who are watching for the soon return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

The entire world is on edge becauseeveryone senses that something big is about to happen. Christians know that either the Rapture of the Church or the battle described in Psalm 83 is about to occur. Many Muslims in the Islamic world think their Mahdi is about to return. Members of the New Age Movement look for the arrival of their Maitreya at any moment. The ancient Mayans, various tribes of American Indians, Nostradamus, the notorious 16th century soothsayer Mother Shipton, and Sir Isaac Newton have all predicted a series of cataclysmic worldwide disasters will occur around this time in history. Even the chief ju-ju bead counters who write for the supermarket tabloids are predicting the return of “The King” (Elvis).

The Earth longs to be free of the curse it has suffered under ever since the original sin of Adam and Eve. Jesus told us in Matthew 24:7-8 that His return would be preceded by upheavals in nature which He likened to the birth pangs of a woman about to give birth, increasing in intensity and frequency as the moment of the arrival of the child draws ever closer.

Has the frequency and intensity of earthquakes been increasing during the past decade? Absolutely. Has the frequency and intensity of violent and extreme weather been increasing? Yes. What about volcanic eruptions? Famines? Floods? Droughts? Not only is the answer to all of these questions definitely yes, but the increase in the frequency and intensity of all of these upheavals has been terrifyingly dramatic.

Around this time last year I was totally convinced that all necessary prophecy regarding the Rapture of the Church had been fulfilled and that it would occur at any moment. At the same time I was a bit concerned that the final sequence of events leading to the Second Coming of our Lord was not quite ready to begin. After all, while Turkey and Israel were not exactly best friends forever, they were, nevertheless, still buddies. Ezekiel 38 tells us that Turkey and Israel are bitter enemies when the shooting starts in the Battle of Gog and Magog. Egypt and Israel were also on relatively friendly terms a year ago, so how was the conflict described in Psalm 83 going to take place? Besides, Israel did not have a great national treasure so why would Gog from the land of Magog invade Israel to capture spoil and seize plunder (Ezekiel 38:12)? That was before enormous reserves of natural gas and oil were discovered beneath the nation of Israel. And finally, about a year ago the Middle East was surprisingly peaceful considering all of the howling and the barking at the moon about war. Threats flowed like water but in the end each nation seemed to prefer peace to the shedding of their own blood. Where was the spark that would ignite the entire Middle East? If nobody was willing to commit an overt act that would start a war then only spontaneous combustion could trigger the detonation, and that did not seem to be very likely. That was a year ago. It is amazing how much the situation has changed.

To get a better look at where we are along then timeline of the last days we need to take a look at the impending food crisis we are facing. Today 1 out of every 6 people on this planet goes to sleep each night without getting enough to eat and 34,000 people die each day from famine related causes. This is horrifying enough, but things are about to get a lot worse.

China is the top producer of wheat in the world. The droughts and dust storms in 2010 have been the worst southwestern China has seen in a century. India is the second largest producer of wheat in the world and is suffering through a record heat wave and water crisis that has badly decimated their crops. Russia is the third largest wheat producer in the world and accounts for 10 percent of total world output. Last year massive wildfires stretched across 7 regions in Russia when temperatures reached their highest level since they started keeping records 130 years ago. France is the fourth largest producer of wheat in the world and just recently lowered their wheat crop forecasts due to cold weather and drought. Canada is the fifth largest wheat producer in the world and has suffered reduced grain production due to severe drought in their western provinces. The Ukraine is the sixth largest producer of wheat and the top producer of barley in the world. They have suffered from the same fires and drought that Russia has endured to the point they have suspended all of the grain exports for 2011. Australia is the seventh largest producer of wheat in the world. Flooding has covered an area in Australia equal in size to that of France and Germany combined, with water 30 feet deep in some places, destroying crops. Pakistan is the eighth largest producer in the world. In 2010 floods in Pakistan covered 17 million acres of their most fertile crop land and did not subside in time for farmers to meet the deadline for planting new seeds for the fall harvest. In addition, historic floods and droughts have destroyed crops in the major grain producing areas of South America. During the winter of 2010-2011 snow fell in 49 of our 50 states here in the US where massive numbers of crops were wiped out. While this was taking place South Korea destroyed millions of farm animals infected with hoof-and-mouth disease. Honeybees and bumble bees continue to die off across North America further reducing food production due to lack of adequate pollination. These are just some of the disasters that have recently occurred which will cause increased famines throughout the world starting right now.

If major worldwide food shortages are a very real possibility this spring then it could very well mean that the third horseman of the apocalypse is, even now, placing the saddle on the black horse and is preparing to ride. If the book of Revelation is chronological, as I believe that it is, then the rider of the white horse (the anti-Christ) and the rider of the red horse, who brings war and destruction, are saddled up and preparing to ride out as well. No wonder the entire world is on edge.

I find it difficult to describe, but it seems like there is a strong electric charge in the air that is causing anxiety around our planet. Uprisings are springing up in every corner of the world. People are spontaneously taking to the streets in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain, Algeria, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Nigeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Albania, Pakistan, Syria, Belgrade, Serbia, Croatia, and China. Western mainstream media has attempted to explain these spontaneous uprisings as a longing for freedom and democracy by the oppressed nations of the world, but this reasoning seems a bit hollow and empty. Something far more complex, and I believe supernatural, is taking place and it is incredibly powerful.

The intangible fear of impending calamity has pushed the levels of violence all over the Earth to an all time high. Never in the history of the world has both the crying for peace and the screaming for war been so deafening.

Gold is at an all time high because people no longer have any faith in the dollar. People are stockpiling food and they are buying guns out of fear for the future rather than fear of crime. For many months ammunition manufacturers have had a difficult time keeping up with demand. Something really big and really bad is about to happen and people all over the world can feel it coming.

The world economy is far too deeply in debt to recover and is teetering on the brink of collapse. The world banking system is a house of cards that is being artificially propped up by its own bankrupt members. A collapse is long overdue and when it does finally come the result will be cataclysmic. On that day somebody will be standing in the wings who will pick up all of the broken pieces and will put them back together in a single worldwide system that everybody will be required to belong to in order to conduct even the simplest of transactions. Financial irresponsibility will be a thing of the past because each transaction, no matter how large or small, will be tracked in real time by one central system. Identity theft will no longer exist. Everyone will access the system using biometric identification in (or on) their own body.

In the past atheists didn’t believe and didn’t care. Now they all seem to be rabidly obsessed on a mission to eliminate every trace of Christianity and Judaism, yet nobody seems to feel compelled to stamp out any other religion.

Religious persecution has increased in frequency and intensity to the point where Christians are fleeing for their lives from the entire Middle East, as well as other parts of the world. Over the past few decades the Moslem world seemed to be relatively content to live and let live as long as Christians did not disparage Allah or Mohammad. Now it seems there is an ever increasing determination to kill every Christian and eliminate all traces of our history and even all traces of our very existence. The Islamic community at times almost appears to be frightened of us Christians and of what is about to happen in the world.

When Paul told us that in the last days immorality would increase and that men would become lovers of men, he was not exaggerating. In the past immorality increased in a subtle, almost coy manner, like a cancer silently spreading through the body of its host. However, in recent years the intensity of immorality has multiplied itself many times over and with a shocking viciousness. Homosexuals, lesbians, and transsexuals are so proud of their sin that they march in the streets demanding to be recognized as a special, privileged class. We have actually reached the point where it is literally a crime to say (or even imply) that homosexuality is a mental disease or defect. The Bible tells us that in the last days good will be called evil and that evil will be called good.

Is it just me, or has filthiness become the accepted norm in far too many places where just a short time ago it was not only considered vulgar, but also unacceptable as well? Even more disturbingly, has the viciousness of which these perversions are being forced upon us increased dramatically? I believe they have and I sense that something really big is about to happen because of it.

All of the signs that we are in the last days and that the Second Coming of our Lord is near are not only here, but many of these signs have intensified immensely. In every direction we look we see the writing on the walls. So, what should we do about it? Stockpiling gold, food, and .44 magnum jacketed hollow point ammunition is not the answer.

The first thing we should do – the most important thing we should do – is to be absolutely certain that our reservation has been make to be in heaven with our Lord and Savior for all eternity. This requires an admission that we are sinners, a faith in our Lord that He is the only path to God and that He is the one and only Savior of the World, and a request in which we must go to Jesus in prayer and ask Him to be our Savior. Nobody can ever get to heaven by being a good person and there are no good deeds that will get us there either. Missing out on such a wonderful gift would be incredibly tragic, especially when such a beautiful gift is free. Time is rapidly running out. At the instant of death our eternal fate is sealed. Our time here on this Earth is precious, but it is a gift. There is no guarantee that we will still possess life here on this Earth a moment from now.

The second thing we should do is to use the time that we have remaining to make sure those around us will be going to heaven as well. Far too many people believe they will be saved because they consider themselves to be a good person and/or because they go to church on Sunday. Spending eternity in hell for this mistaken belief is so horribly tragic that it is beyond description.

And finally, I believe that we desperately need to tell people that heaven is a real place that actually exists, and that hell is also a real place that actually exists. Salvation is a free gift and the opportunity to choose our fate ends at the moment of death.

In the latter portion of 1999 the world was gripped with a paranoid fear that the computers of the world would somehow cause worldwide disasters when the calendar rolled over to the year 2000. We called it the Y2K event. Everyone felt a sickening dread that these disasters would be of Biblical proportions. Nothing happened. Now the intangible fear has returned and it is far stronger than it was before. What will be the final outcome this time around?

I just wanted to say that someone shared this piece on one of our forum’s and many read it, and all agreed what a great post this is! Excellent synopsis of what is going on! And great advice you give. Yes, something big is coming and we sure hope it is the rapture. Thanks for this insightful piece.